Introduction | Overview | Population | Life expectancy
A world of empires | Independence | Rich and poor
Before and after | Did you know? | Find out more

Before and after

How did the world of 2000 compare with that of 1900?

• It was healthier. Most people in 2000 were taller, heavier, better fed and lived longer than their parents and grandparents (except in Africa, Latin America and the former Soviet Union).

• It was richer. If it wasn't, it could not have supported such a boom in population. Most people lived more comfortable lives by the end of the century than their great-grandparents would have believed possible.

• It was more urban. More and more people lived in cities, and more and more in the Third World megalopolises. Cities such as Bombay, Lagos, São Paulo, Karachi, Mexico City and Shanghai have replaced London, New York, Paris, Berlin, Chicago and Vienna as the most populous places on earth.

• It was smaller. Time and distance were shrunk by technological innovation – people could speak to each other across oceans and continents at the touch of a button.

• It was better educated. For the first time in history, most humans could be described as literate. (However, in 1995, about 900 million people in the world were still illiterate, and most of these lived in India.)

• It was more mobile. Fewer people than ever before stayed put; more people than ever before had cars and used modern transport, from trains to planes. (In 1914, there were 0.13 million cars in Britain; in 1993, there were 20.7 million.)

• It was more entertaining. As well as being swamped by the flood of information, the world of 2000 was full of far more culture and leisure activities than even emperors could have dreamt about in 1900.

• It was noisier. From planes and cars to consumer goods such as radios, stereos and televisions, the world hummed to the sound of machines. Stress, derived at least partly from increased levels of noise in all cities and over much land, also increased.

• It was more polluted. By the end of the century, human pollution of the environment threatened the future of planet. The massive burning of oil, coal and gas replaced moderate consumption of dung, wood and coal.

• It was dangerous. The 20th century comprised 100 years of megadeath, with perhaps as many as 187 million people killed by others (the equivalent of one in 10 of the total world population in 1900).

• It was no longer Eurocentric. Europeans and their descendants have been reduced from comprising a third of humanity to being less than one sixth, and their power over the rest of globe has been curtailed. The 'American century' saw also the emergence of the post-colonial world.

• It was more global. In economic terms, the world is now one international village. Nation-states can barely control the multinational corporations that trade everywhere.

• It was uneasy. All the traditional ways of living – the roles of men and women, sexual behaviour, public and private morality, political and religious belief – had been questioned, overturned, rediscovered and questioned yet again.

• It was much less traditional. Despite the rise of religious fundamentalisms of various kinds, the old patterns of human relationships have been dissolved, with the links between generations, and between past and present, increasingly tenuous.

• It was more individualistic. In terms of life plans, behaviour, culture and private thought, more and more people were self-centred individuals who were only interested in their own gratification (for profit or for pleasure).

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